iPad mini with 7.9-inch display starts at $329 for 16GB

The Wi-Fi version of the tablet ships November 2.

Apple announced a new tablet named the iPad mini at a press event Tuesday in San Jose, CA. The tablet's screen measures 7.85 inches diagonally, giving it a bit more real estate than its 7-inch competitors.

The iPad mini is 7.2 millimeters thick and weighs 0.68 pounds, 53 percent lighter than the iPad. The mini has a 7.9-inch 1024×768 display, making it 35 percent larger than 7-inch Android tablets like the Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire HD but with a lower resolution. Apple CEO Tim Cook made a point of the physical size of the display, noting that the iPad mini has 29.6 square inches of screen to a 7-inch Android tablet's 21.9 inches.

Inside, the tablet has an A5 processor, the same system-on-a-chip used in the iPhone 4S and iPad 2, and an 802.11ab/g/n Wi-Fi radio. An HD camera is embedded in the bezel on the front, and a 5-megapixel camera is on the back.

The model is designed with an aluminum back, similar to the larger iPad. Like its bigger brother, the mini will get 10 hours of battery life and come in black and white.

A comparison of the iPad mini's screen with that of a smaller 7-inch Android tablet.

In addition to the iPad mini, Apple announced a fourth-gen iPad tablet with a new A6X processor that has double the graphics and CPU performance, according to Cook.

The iPad mini starts at $329 for a 16GB configuration, significantly more than the $199 Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire HD, and tops out at $659 for a 64GB version with data access. The Wi-Fi versions are set to ship November 2, while those with cellular access will go out two weeks later on November 16.

Apple also announced a new version of iBooks Author, the tool that lets users create textbooks, which allows publishers to use their own fonts and include "multitouch widgets" in the books. Apple noted that because of the iPad, iBooks have become fairly successful in the education sector. Cook noted that 80 percent of the US high school curriculum is now available in the iBookstore. With the new iPad mini, Apple may be aiming for another push into the education sector.

217 Reader Comments

Normally I hate bezel, so this would be a good thing, but even on my 5" E-Reader, I often put my thumb on the Bezel to hold the device securely, here it looks like my thumb could help but trigger the touch screen.

Normally I hate bezel, so this would be a good thing, but even on my 5" E-Reader, I often put my thumb on the Bezel to hold the device securely, here it looks like my thumb could help but trigger the touch screen.

I have a nexus 7 and I can tell you that ipad mini's smaller size bezel is going to be a problem. If you use these small tablets 1 handed on say a train to watch a video the most natural way is to hold it from the side/now bottom of the table. On the nexus I keep touching the screen and registering a touch while holding it like this. With the thinner bezel it could be worse depending on the GUI design etc.

I can't help but think how Apple's now a follower with this announcement.

Also it is me or are Apple products just bad value now? The new 13 in MBP is crazy expensive. Yes it's very nice and yes it last a long time (I have the 2010 13 inch MBP an a 2009 27 inch iMac, and a ipad 2) but at this point in life with other things to spend my limited funds on I just don't think I can justify Apple goods going forward.

With the iMac I wish it was easier to upgrade the drive. Doesn't help that now I have to go and have my drive recalled. The screen has blotches which I will have ask them to fix while they are doing the drive. The fact that I can get both fixed for free is great (at the cost of having paid for 3 years of apple care) but I can't help but think that for the lower cost of a PC I would have gotten 2 computers for the price of the iMac.

I'm more concerned with the continued price premium of the flash & cell upgrades than the base price. 32G is really the base config with my usage patterns and 64G is where you start having some breathing room. The $329 would have been fine if it started at 32...

The screen captures pitting the N7 against the mini are horse-shit. They are cropping out the chrome menu bar and comparing that to the safari full screen. Taking out the 80 pixels for the N7's soft buttons gives 720 vertical pixels in landscape mode - vs 768 for the mini. The crops they are using make it appear to only have 2/3rds the pixels.

Normally I hate bezel, so this would be a good thing, but even on my 5" E-Reader, I often put my thumb on the Bezel to hold the device securely, here it looks like my thumb could help but trigger the touch screen.

I have a nexus 7 and I can tell you that ipad mini's smaller size bezel is going to be a problem. If you use these small tablets 1 handed on say a train to watch a video the most natural way is to hold it from the side/now bottom of the table. On the nexus I keep touching the screen and registering a touch while holding it like this. With the thinner bezel it could be worse depending on the GUI design etc.

This is what I was thinking of as well based on the same experience. Otherwise it looks like a great product.

Normally I hate bezel, so this would be a good thing, but even on my 5" E-Reader, I often put my thumb on the Bezel to hold the device securely, here it looks like my thumb could help but trigger the touch screen.

I just swapped out my Kindle Fire for a Fire HD recently, and the bigger bezel is a godsend on the new model. It makes it so much easier to hold than the previous Kindle.

I'm actually kind of glad I didn't wait for this. Even with the rough edges on the Kindle software, the better price and higher resolution make it a better deal for me. All of the keys apps I need are already there on the Kindle, so even the bigger app ecosystem isn't going to be an advantage for this. Between the Kindle HD, and the Nexus 7, I just don't see a need for this product in the marketplace. Of course they'll probably still sell a crapload of them anyway.

I still think Apple will sell millions of them. Perhaps tens of millions. If pricing were the be-all and end-all, then the iPad 2 and 3 would've been dead in the water months ago, and they're not, by a long shot. I may agree in principle that $329 is too high (The iPad 4 for $499 is a way better value, if you really break it down) but in the end, it won't matter.

I still think Apple will sell millions of them. Perhaps tens of millions. If pricing were the be-all and end-all, then the iPad 2 and 3 would've been dead in the water months ago, and they're not, by a long shot. I may agree in principle that $329 is too high (The iPad 4 for $499 is a way better value, if you really break it down) but in the end, it won't matter.

For some reason people always think that purely having the cheapest product wins, despite history proving otherwise.

EDIT: I'm not trying to make an argument about best value for money, etc. here. I'm sticking with my N7 myself.